Row crop harvesters, such as cotton harvesters and the like, are typically equipped on their underside with an open frame on which a drive assembly including an engine and transmission is mounted. The frame extends in a fore-and-aft direction relative to the harvester and includes a pair of front wheels and a pair of rear wheels. To maintain a low center of gravity and to reduce the overall height of the harvester thereby allowing passage through barn doors and the like, the underside of the frame is arranged close to the ground surface over which the harvester moves.
The row crop harvester further includes a plurality of fore-and-aft extending harvesting units mounted in side-by-side order relative to each other and extending across the width of the harvester frame. Recent improvements in cotton harvesters allow the transverse spacing between the row units to be readily changed or adjusted to accommodate variations in row spacings between different fields.
Cotton plants grow to a substantial height and as the harvester is driven across the field, the plants pass through a passage provided on each harvesting unit. After passing through the harvesting units, the plants pass beneath the open frame of the harvester. Depending upon their height, the distal or upper portion of the plants are vertically deflected as the harvester passes thereover. In many instances, however, the resiliency of the plant often causes the plant's distal end and/or foliage thereon to extend through the open frame of the harvester and into the engine compartment of the harvester.
Because of the numerous operating components on the harvester, especially in the area of the engine and transmission, plants and foliage thereon often become entangled with the engine and other operating components of the harvester. Such entanglement can often damage the foliage on the plants and often reduces or even halts operating time for the harvester until the entangled foliage is removed from the operating components. Of course, during harvesting conditions, operating time of the harvester is at a premium and any unwarranted slow down or stoppages prove costly to the overall harvesting operation.
The problem of plants and foliage entangling with operating components of the drive train has been recognized in the art. Therefore, some row crop harvesters are equipped on their underside with open sided ducts or channels. These ducts or shields inhibit the plants and foliage thereon from becoming entangled with operating components of the harvester. The ducts or channels are usually fabricated from elongated sheets of metal which are fixed to the underside of the harvester frame and extend substantially parallel to the length of the harvester.
Such channels or ducts are fixed to the underside of the harvester frame in accordance with the row spacings of the harvesting units. As mentioned above, however, recent improvements in crop harvesters has allowed the row spacings between adjacent harvesting units to be readily adjusted thereby adding a dimension of flexibility to the row crop harvesters. As will be appreciated, not all farmers may plant their row crops with exactly the same spacing between adjacent rows. The open ducts or channels on the underside of the harvester, however, are not readily movable as are the harvesting units. Thus, such ducts or channels detract from the versatility of the harvester.
Thus, there is a need and a desire for a plant deflector assembly for inhibiting plants passing beneath the harvester from entangling about the operative components arranged on the open frame of the harvester and which are readily adaptable to different row spacings between adjacent rows of plants.